MOM’S THE WORD
QUINTET’S LIFE STORIES RESONATE WITH MOTHERS
Kids have grown up, relationships have been rocky, people got sick, hair has gone grey … and the Mom’s the Word women are back and ready to talk about it all.
Co-writers and co-stars Jill Daum, Alison Kelly, Robin Nichol, Barbara Pollard and Deborah Williams return with a vengeance and sore backs with the new play Mom’s the Word 3: Nest ½ Empty.
The latest addition to their internationally successful Mom’s the Word franchise runs at the Arts Club’s Granville Island Stage from April 6 to May 6.
“They are getting older, marriages are suffering. Kids are growing up, leaving home, coming back or won’t leave and are being pried out of the house. There’s sick spouses,” Kelly said in a recent interview.
That last one is a big one that must be addressed — the illness in question has been well publicized as Daum is married to John Mann, the award-winning singer/songwriter and frontman for Spirit of the West, who has advanced early onset Alzheimer’s.
“I said if we do another show I am going to have to talk about Alzheimer’s because it is so all encompassing in my life,” said Daum, who joined Kelly in the interview. “These guys said: ‘Yeah, that would be good and probably good for you, Jill,’ so I have a through line with John’s diagnosis and coping with that to the final concert with Spirit.”
While the onstage acknowledgment of Mann’s illness and Daum’s caregiving will, like a lot of the Mom’s material, strike a resonating chord with audience members, it has also been therapy for Daum.
“It was really, really helpful. It helped me put into words some of my experiences,” Daum said. “It makes me feel there is a reason for it in a little, tiny way.”
Also, at the end of the day for Daum a break from her caregiving role is simply just a relief.
“When I am on stage not everything is about Alzheimer’s, and that’s really lovely,” said Daum.
While the sadness of a life-changing illness is addressed, it’s just part of the rich fabric of the Mom’s universe. Everybody has stories to tell, and they’re like a soothing balm to others who have felt similar failures when it comes to managing family.
“The legacy of these shows for me is that we made it OK to talk about being moms,” said Kelly. “The good, the bad and the ugly. We did this long before it became vogue in pop TV. Also, the realization that there is a common bond between moms around the world. We share the same trials, tribulations and joys.
“With Facebook now it constantly looks like everyone is parenting better than you are,” added Kelly. “Hopefully we’ll give mothers confidence because now they can see they’re at least doing better than we are.”
First conceived (no pun intended, well … maybe a little bit) back in 1993, Mom’s the Word debuted on the Arts Club stage in 1995. It was an instant hit here and headed overseas. The collective followed up that one 10 years later with Mom’s the Word 2: Unhinged. That look at life with teenagers was also a hit. A remixed version of those two plays was mounted in 2009.
Now here we are today after 24 years and productions in 19 different countries.
“I think they are too humble to admit that it is a major international theatrical phenomenon. Last year alone it was produced in Scotland, Canada, Italy, Germany, Switzerland,” said the play’s director Wayne Harrison. “I don’t know many contemporary playwrights that have actually achieved that. And it just keeps stoking up. They have a lot of stories to tell.”
The moms’ magic has, of course, plenty to do with the fact the stories they are telling are funny, insightful, embarrassing, pretty much true and wonderfully universal. As Harrison aptly puts it, “it is theatre of recognition.”
“It’s a kind of communal thing. The Mom’s the Word collective is much bigger than the authors on stage. It actually includes the people in the audience,” he added.
After two-and-a-half decades of stories and struggles, it really is something that the Mom’s collective is still standing so strong — that they still have a lot to say to each other and to an audience.
“We’ve been to therapy twice as a group and I think it has really paid off,” said Daum, with Kelly agreeing. “We have become family now and have accepted the fact we are inescapable from each other’s lives and are way more accepting and loving.”
The big thing the women learned in therapy was problem solving. Kelly said their therapist introduced systems to them, systems that would allow them to address concerns and face issues without turning their own creative lives into big fat dramas.
Ask any Mom’s the Word fan about the shows and its subject matter, and you’ll hear something along the lines of “they it made it OK to not be perfect.”
Kelly and Daum say they have had to pay a price for their celebrity mom mantels.
“Well, you got recognized, so you had to be way more polite in public,” said Daum. Kelly, laughing, agrees: “Yeah, and there’s no smacking your kids in public.”